Homily for Pentecost 7533 (2025) from St. John’s by Priest Paul Siewers.

Brothers and Sisters, today we are at the culmination of Jesus Christ’s redemption of us, in the whole Holy Trinity. Having passed joyously through the blessed Pascha season, we reached its end and then the next day the Ascension, now 10 days after that, Pentecost, from which all the weeks of the Church year are numbered until we approach Great Lent again.

Jesus Christ being enthroned in human form, fully God and fully man, in heaven with His Father, now is the time that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, is sent down to all of us in the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Body of Christ.

In Proverbs, Solomon, whose name means Peacemaker and is a type of Christ, wrote, “Wisdom built her house, and she supported it with seven pillars.” The Apostle Paul teaches us that Christ is “the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24). St. John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers note that the house of Wisdom is the Church. She is supported by seven pillars of the Holy Spirit. They rise on Pentecost and are with us still.

These seven pillars of Wisdom, the pillars of Christ’s Church, are, St. John Chrysostom explains, the seven spirits of the Holy Spirit foreseen by the Prophet Isaiah, reiterated in Revelation. They are the spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of strength, of knowledge, of piety, and of the fear of God. They are names for the uncreated energies of God that come as graceful virtues to us, which we can make our own with God’s help. These seven graces come from the Holy Spirit through Pentecost to us today still in the Mysteries of the Church, as we purify and illumine ourselves through synergy with the uncreated energies of God. In these graces of Wisdom, Christ, we become ourselves pillars of the Church. The Church, the Bride of Christ, as the House of Wisdom, also is identified with the Theotokos or the Mother of God.

Through the Church we receive the Wisdom of God, Christ. Our own virtues grow in synergy with Him in those seven spirits. Let us pray to God to receive them– the spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of strength, of knowledge, of piety, and of the fear of God. We receive these illuminating virtues of grace in our own struggle of purification to express more of what are known as the simple four general or cardinal virtues, spoken of in the Wisdom of Sirach and Maccabees in the Bible. These are Prudence or wisdom, Justice or righteousness, Fortitude or courage, and Temperance or self-control. They combine with the New Testament virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

The higher form of those simple virtues are empowered by their corresponding seven spirits or graces of the Holy Spirit. Thus, practical Prudence becomes transformative Wisdom. Justice or righteousness becomes understanding. Fortitude or courage becomes Strength and power in Christ. Temperance or self-control becomes Counsel, the giving of wisdom to others. For Christ is the Light of the World, and He tells us to let our light shine.

The three New Testament virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity also are illumined by the graces of the Holy Spirit. Faith becomes Knowledge of God and His Creation, Hope rises as Piety or obedient spiritual devotion, and Love returns as the Fear of God, in the sense of opening our heart to His awesomeness and thus to loving each other more than ourselves. As we say at the Eucharist, “with fear of God and faith draw nigh.” Fear has a deeper meaning here of holy awe.

The Holy Spirit given us through the Church’s mysteries on Pentecost is really with us at every worship service and when we strive to pray without ceasing throughout the day. He transforms and redeems our virtues, to illumined spiritual graces. Let us let our light so shine that the flame-like shining of Pentecost may be around us at all times. “In Thy light shall we see light.”

Proverbs is filled with symbolism highlighting these graces of the Holy Spirit given to us at Pentecost. The whole biblical book is based on the phrase, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” It asks us to open our heart to Him, so that our prudence may be lifted up in Christ. Again, as we say at the Eucharist, “with fear of God and faith draw near.” Proverbs also in its introduction asks us to follow the instructions of our Father and Mother. As St. Cyprian wrote, “To have God as our Father, we must first have the Church as our Mother.”  The golden crown and chain of the faithful believer described in the book of Proverbs is shown by the Church Fathers to be the crown of discernment or wisdom, and the chain of the other virtues, become golden in the light of the Holy Spirit’s graces. While we may start practicing the simple virtues in purification of our souls, the graces of the Holy Spirit illumine them into the light of Christ.

A famous verse in Proverbs describes this. In the Septuagint it reads: “Trust in God with all thine heart; and be not exalted in thine own wisdom. In all thy ways acquaint thyself with her, that she may rightly direct thy paths.” For the Church Fathers, this tells us to acquaint ourselves with the wisdom of the Church in the Holy Spirit, which leads us to Christ Who is Wisdom, for the Church is the body and the bride of Christ. Proverbs ends with a description of the virtuous and courageous wife, which our Fathers found applicable not only literally to a good wife, but also symbolically to the Church as the Bride of Christ, the community in which we live today.

St. Gregory Palamas wrote of the significance of today’s Feast in this way:

…in the upper room, each having also gathered together his thoughts (for they were devoting themselves intently to prayer and hymns to God). “And suddenly”, says Luke the evangelist, “there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:1–11). … [Christ’s] breathing upon the disciples foretold the breath, which is now poured down abundantly from above and resounds with a great voice heard far and wide, summoning everything under heaven, pouring grace over all who approach with faith and filling them with it. It is forceful in that it is all-conquering, storms the ramparts of evil, and destroys all the enemy’s cities and strongholds. It brings low the proud and lifts up the humble in heart, binds what should not have been loosed, breaks the bonds of sins and undoes what is held fast. It filled the house where they were sitting, making it a spiritual font, and accomplishing the promise which the Saviour made them when He ascended, saying, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:5)…. those wonders began which proclaimed the Holy Spirit as a divine person in His own right, that we might come to know and contemplate the great and venerable mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit had been active before: it was He who spoke through the prophets and proclaimed things to come. Later He worked through the disciples to drive out demons and heal diseases. But now He was manifested to all in His own person through the tongues of fire, and by sitting enthroned as Lord upon each of Christ’s disciples, He made them instruments of His power. Why did He appear in the form of tongues? It was to demonstrate that He shared the same nature as the Word of God, for there is no relationship closer than that between word and tongue. It was also because of teaching, since teaching Christ’s gospel needs a tongue full of grace. But why fiery tongues? Not just because the Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son – and our God is fire (cf. Heb. 12:29), a fire consuming wickedness – but also because of the twofold energy of the apostles’ preaching, which can bring both benefit and punishment…. Christ’s teaching enlightens those who obey but finally hands over the disobedient to eternal fire and punishment. The text says, “tongues like fire” not “tongues of fire”, that no one might imagine it was ordinary physical fire, but that we might understand the manifestation of the Spirit using fire as an example. Why did the tongues appear to be divided among them? Because the Spirit is given by measure by the Father to all except Christ (John 3:34), who Himself came from above. He, even in the flesh, possessed the fullness of divine power and energy, whereas the grace of the Holy Spirit was only partially, not fully, contained within anyone else. Each one obtained different gifts, lest anyone should suppose the grace given to the saints by the Holy Spirit was theirs by nature.

The fact that the divine Spirit sat upon them is proof not just of His lordly dignity, but of His unity. He sat, it says, “upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:3–4)…. in each of His works the Holy Spirit is wholly present and active, undividedly divided, partaken of while remaining complete, like the sun’s ray.

So taught St. Gregory.

Brothers and sisters, let us rejoice this day the Comforter is come to us in the Church, and in our struggle to practice simple virtues, give them up to the graces of the Holy Spirit, as we pray together once more: “O Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Thou who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Bestower of life, come and dwell with us and cleanse us from every sin, and save our souls, O Good One. Amen.”